The Empire begins with the Fourth Scourge.

2707, Double Agent

Taking advantage of the moment when Ella Sekula blocked Talia, Cal Kestis took off running, and with the help of the Force, he ran at a very fast speed.

Just then, a Warthog SUV suddenly sped out from the side and crashed into him recklessly!
Cal Kestis was still unfamiliar with the use of the Force. He didn't anticipate the impact and was almost hit, but at the last moment he jumped up to absorb most of the impact force, then rolled over the Warthog and fell to the ground behind the vehicle with a thud.

Without hesitation, the car reversed and rammed into him. This time, Carl Caseys reacted and rolled away to avoid it.

Then, the car door opened, and a muscular man dressed in black, whose chest muscles almost burst out of his clothes, jumped out and fired a burst of bullets!

Rat-a-tat-tat-tat! Carl-Kestis quickly swung his lightsaber to block the bullets.

However, the "Beagle" assault rifle had an extremely high rate of fire, firing dozens of bullets in an instant. Karl was overwhelmed, and several bullets slipped through his fingers, grazing his thigh with a soft thud, causing him to bleed profusely!
Cal-Kestis screamed in agony, only then remembering to raise his hand and use the Force to block all the bullets. However, he had almost lost the ability to move, and his lightsaber fell to the ground in a panic.

Shen Yuanhao stared coldly at him, then flicked his wrist, and a retractable stun baton appeared in his hand. He strode forward, intending to subdue Karl completely.

A terrifying whistling sound suddenly came from the sky. Shen Yuanhao turned around sharply and saw the attacking ghost fighter jet descending from the sky with a long trail of flames, crashing straight towards them!

He reacted incredibly quickly, turning and running. However, being only human, he was a step too slow and was about to be hit by the crashing fighter jet. In that instant, Talia appeared in front of him, shoving him away with a powerful blast of Force, saving Shen Yuanhao from certain death.

boom! ! ! !

The ghost fighter crashed into the ground, and a massive explosion swept outwards, engulfing everything in flames.

A semi-transparent barrier appeared amidst the explosion, blocking the flames and shockwaves as they spread outwards. It was none other than the Elur girl, Talia! She raised her hand to create a Force barrier, blocking the terrifying explosion, and in this catastrophe, Shen Yuanhao was also unharmed.

Before the aftershocks of the explosion had subsided and the flames were still burning, the combat robots rushed in and searched everywhere, but found nothing.

Carl Kestis and the other two disappeared without a trace, clearly taking advantage of the chaos to escape.

Shen Yuanhao got up from the ground, dusted himself off, and looked at the flames in front of him, saying, "They got away. Those damned guys... It's all my fault."

Talia walked up behind him and said calmly, "It's already quite remarkable that you were able to appear ahead of a Force-sensitive person's escape route and corner him. The person piloting the plane... is troublesome."

“Kunlan-Vos…” Shen Yuanhao frowned. “This guy infiltrated our territory, I wonder what he’s plotting. They’ve escaped again this time. In any case, intensify the search. They finally slipped up, we absolutely cannot lose them again this time!”

“I heard that he had contact with our Emperor before,” Talia said, turning her head.

“I don’t know the specifics. However, someone like him, willing to become a double agent, must be incredibly cunning. Yet, he sometimes possesses crucial intelligence, which allows him to always escape with his life,” Shen Yuanhao said, frowning. “Be careful.”

Talia nodded and said to a command-type combat robot that walked over, "Gather every clue at the scene, and find that Cal-Kestis blood sample for testing. He is clearly a Jedi, but he was not found in any of the previous censuses. I need to know why."

“Roger Roger,” the combat robot responded immediately.

With a thud, Carl-Kestis was thrown onto the cold, hard ground. He rolled a few times, aggravating the wound on his thigh, and immediately screamed in pain.

"Don't scream!" Ella Sekula snapped. She stepped forward, pulled down Carl's pants, and then took out a bottle of first-aid spray and sprayed it on the wound, which quickly stopped the bleeding.

Although the bullet only grazed him, the powerful kinetic energy tore through Karl-Castro's thigh muscle, ripping off a large chunk of flesh. Now, it's clear that a piece of his thigh is missing.

Carl knew he couldn't scream, so he bit his hand, enduring the pain.

Ella Sekula carefully treated his wound and sealed it with bio-gel. Karl rested for a while before feeling a little better. He lay weakly on the ground, panting.

"All I can say is, you're a fool." A somewhat familiar voice came from behind.

Carl-Kestis remembered that it was the voice of the mysterious man in the darkness that night. He looked up and saw a figure sitting in a chair in the shadows, facing backwards with the back of the chair leaning forward, looking very casual.

However, due to the backlighting, Carl couldn't see his face clearly, only vaguely discerning that he had a thick head of dreadlocks.

“Who are you?” Carl-Kestis murmured.

"Since you've at least kept your promise, let me introduce myself. My name is Quinlan Voss, and this is my apprentice—Ella Sekura," the figure said slowly. "As you can see, we were once Jedi Knights."

“You’re Jedi Knights? No, Jedi Knights wouldn’t do that,” Cal Kestis said.

This operation caused a huge commotion, conservatively estimated to have resulted in more than a dozen civilian casualties—a situation the Jedi Knights absolutely did not want to see. Yet these two carried it out without any hesitation.

“If this thing falls into the hands of the Angels of Death, the death toll will increase a millionfold. I know very well what is more important,” Quinlan-Vos said.

“What is this?” Carl-Kestis asked again.

“Since things have come to this, I might as well tell you.” Quinlan-Vorse shook his head. “Inside here is a Kyber Crystal. It was once used by a Sith Lord’s lightsaber. It contains the secrets of that Sith Lord.”

Carl Caseys suddenly realized, "No wonder I saw it..."

"What did you see?" Quinlan-Worth asked with great interest.

“Uh…sometimes I see a face lunging at me,” Carl-Kestis answered honestly.

"You can see this thing?" Quinlan-Worth asked in surprise. "I know this thing sometimes exhibits unusual fluctuations, but you can actually see a face? Could it be that you can sense the soul inside?" (End of Chapter)